Aotearoa’s only full-immersion reo Māori swim school is reframing water safety education, teaching swimming and water safety through a te ao Māori lens.
Based at Swimtastic in Glen Innes, Te Whare Kauhoe teaches every lesson entirely in te reo Māori, weaving tikanga and mātauranga Māori into the curriculum, recognising wai not just as water, but as life force.
“We teach through our way of life,” says Founder Keitiria McColl.
She explains that mainstream swim education is often not well-suited to Māori learners.
“As Māori, we have a natural connection to the wai,” she says.
“We’re teaching them to rukuhia ki te kina, pērā i tana pāpā. We’re not sculling and treading water, we’re doing waewae takahia. We’re not doing streamlines, we’re doing whakatū tō taiaha.”
McColl began competitive swimming at age nine, stepping away from the sport at 14. Just four years ago, she returned to the pool with dreams of qualifying for the Olympics.
“At the end of that year, I find out that I have cancer in my throat.”
Coaching became a way to stay connected to swimming. From that came Te Whare Kauhoe, which now delivers more than technical skills in the pool.,
Ngā tatauranga toromi i Aotearoa
According to Water Safety New Zealand, Māori accounted for 31 percent of drowning deaths in Aotearoa in 2022.
“I’m just trying to lower our drowning statistics. We teach swimming skills, and then we teach water survival on top of it.”
She says cost, limited access, and a lack of transport prevent many whānau Māori from accessing traditional swim education - and ultimately lead to lower water confidence and higher drowning rates.
“I just think that swimming is expensive. We just don’t have the availability, I think, to take our tamariki to the pool because there are other sports that are a priority.”
At $160 per child per term, Te Whare Kauhoe aims to keep classes affordable and offers transport for tauira.
Former national swimming coach and Swimtastic director Mark Bone says he’s never seen anything like the initiative in all his years in the sport.
“I think it’s a wonderful initiative and one that we’ve really embraced.”
“The culture loves water. Are they safe in water? No. But they love water, and they love what water does and what it represents and what it means. [But] it doesn’t always mean you’re safe in water.”
Te Whare Kauhoe piloted the programme with local Puna Reo and primary students from Ōrākei. McColl says the long-term goal is to expand across Tāmaki Makaurau and eventually the rest of the country.
“Right now, my main focus is getting our rangatahi and tamariki in, and then moving into that pakeke space, because that seems to be a red zone at the moment too.”
“I think by having the approach of likening it to our space, they’re more likely to learn from it and to keep coming back.”
